REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 415 
extension ; and consequently that in all probability we should 
long since have been both painfully and practically familiar 
with it in this country, as hundreds of our cattle would have 
succumbed to its destructive effects. 
9. That it is one of the most infectious maladies of which 
we have any experience, and that it is capable of being con¬ 
veyed from animal to animal by persons and various articles 
of clothing, &c., which have come in contact with the 
diseased cattle, 
10. That the,ox tribe is alone susceptible to the disease; 
and that the morbific matter on which it depends lies dormant 
in the system for a period of not less than seven days, and 
occasionally, according to some Continental authorities, as 
long as twenty days, before the symptoms declare themselves. 
11. That an attack of the disease which has terminated 
favorably renders the animal insusceptible to a second action 
of the materies morbi which gives origin to the pest. 
12. That the deaths often amount to 90 per cent. 
13. That the malady is one in which the blood is early, if 
not primarily, affected ; and that subsequently the mucous 
membranes throughout the entire body become the principal 
seat of the morbid changes. 
14. That the symptoms are in general well marked and 
quite characteristic of the affection. 
15. That all varieties of medical treatment which have as 
yet been tried have failed in curing the disease ; the recoveries 
which take place having for the most part depended on the 
vis medicatrix natures . 
16 . That no fear need be entertained that this destructive 
pest will reach our shores. Its present great distance from 
us would, of itself, afford a fair amount of security; but when 
we add to this that no cattle find their way from thence, 
directly or indirectly, to the English market; and also that in 
the event of the disease spreading from Galicia, it would have 
to break through hundreds of military cordons, one after the 
other, before it could possibly reach the western side of the 
German states; and, moreover, that for years past commerce 
has been unrestricted with regard to the importation of skins, 
hides, bones, &c., of cattle from Russia and elsewhere, all 
alarm, we believe, may cease with reference to its introduction 
into the British Isles. 
